Still no timetable for 6th district election

As the selection of a date for a special 6th Bristol Representative District drags on, the opportunity to hold a primary in that race in conjunction with the special U.S. Senate election appears to have passed.

As the selection of a date for a special 6th Bristol Representative District drags on, the opportunity to hold a primary in that race in conjunction with the special U.S. Senate election appears to have passed.

While there is no specific timetable for holding the 6th Bristol race to fill the seat left vacant by former Rep. David Sullivan, a review of recent special House elections shows that the seven weeks remaining between Tuesday and the June 25 Senate election will not be enough time even if a 6th Bristol date is set soon.

A special election currently taking place for the 8th Suffolk Representative District seat will end on June 25, with the election calendar beginning on Jan. 23. The time frame between when nomination papers had to be submitted and the May 28 primary in the Suffolk race is six weeks.

With not all special House elections are required to be the same length, Brian McNiff, spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office, said it is not impossible to have the two elections coincide.

“At some point (it wouldn’t be possible), but I haven’t really figured that out,” McNiff said.

McNiff said that to his knowledge there have been no talks between the Secretary of State’s office and that of House Speaker Robert DeLeo.

“At this point we’re waiting for them,” McNiff said.

He’s not alone.

Election officials in Fall River and Freetown said they don’t expect the elections to overlap, with Freetown Town Clerk Jacqueline Brown saying she is looking at dates in July and August for the 6th Bristol election.

“The chance of it being combined probably isn’t going to happen,” Brown said. “To have the primary in time, it almost sounds impossible.”

Brown said she wasn’t sure what the cost of an election in the one 6th Bristol precinct would be, but Fall River Board of Elections Commissioners chairwoman Elizabeth Camara said a special 6th Bristol election would cost approximately $40,000 each for a primary and general election. That would come on the heels of the Senate elections that cost approximately $92,000 each to hold.

Both Brown and Camara expressed hope that there would be some form of reimbursement from the state for the 6th Bristol proceedings.

“The Senate is supposed to get reimbursed, but even that they haven’t said,” Camara said.

While the elections are unlikely to occur together, Camara said she does not expect to have problems staffing polling locations for the multiple elections that are expected to take place during the next couple of months. She said that with just half of the city participating in the 6th Bristol election, poll clerks that typically work polls in other districts can be called to fill any gaps.

Page 2 of 2 - “In the meantime we just wait,” Camara said. “That’s what it is, just the waiting.”